After much discussion, the board and leadership at BHoF have decided to indefinitely suspend the museum’s operation, effective July 20, 2025. While the museum generates revenue, it generally costs more to operate than it earns, and we have relied on the Weekender to make up the difference. But the Weekender has still not returned to pre-pandemic numbers and Trump administration policies make it unlikely that it will for some while. Additionally, we are still recovering from the effects of the pandemic, and these further financial impacts have created a storm that we cannot weather. 

Recent economic and political events have impacted the Burlesque Hall of Fame deeply. Our city’s visitation is down 10% over last year, with international travel especially hard-hit. Museum attendance has plummeted along with the drop in tourism. Meanwhile, funders we’ve relied on are struggling as federal funding is withdrawn. And Weekender ticket sales are slow as recession looms and international visitors make the difficult but entirely reasonable decision not to risk a US border crossing. 

We have developed a plan that offers our best chance to protect what the Burlesque Hall of Fame is and does. The Burlesque Hall of Fame is much more than just a physical museum. There is the collection itself, Jennie Lee’s legacy, built over 60 years and still growing. The Weekender, 35 years old this year, continues to be a focal point for the world’s burlesque community. We teach classes, produce events, post stories and images, facilitate research, develop online exhibitions, provide material to other institutions, and more. We are looking out for the long-term survival of this organization the Weekender, and the collection, and unfortunately that means cutting an important but costly part of our operation.

To be clear, the Burlesque Hall of Fame as a whole is NOT going out of business. We are putting the most expensive part of our operation on hiatus in order to protect the collection, the Weekender, and our community. Over the next several years:

• The BHoF Weekender will continue. 
• The collection will be kept safe. 
• We will maintain our local shows and the School of Striptease, sharing the art of burlesque with new performers and new audiences. 
• We will develop online and travelling exhibitions and build new partnerships with museums and other organizations around the country. 
• We will focus on developing a new long-term fundraising plan, including a capital campaign to build up funds to re-open the museum when more stable economic and political conditions emerge. 

Our mission is to preserve, share, celebrate, and inspire the art of burlesque, and our goal is to create a stronger, more resilient organization to carry out that mission. In this moment, that means making a painful but necessary sacrifice, one that we had hoped we’d never have to make, but it’s the right thing to do for the overall good of the organization.